I think I'm finally over what they call the "low carb flu" and feel pretty good all of the time. If I have a midafternoon dip, it's after work when I am, in fact, physically tired. When I feel like having a nap, I do fall asleep. I'm sleeping very well at night.
Now, I feel well enough to incorporate some heavy lifting. In fact this morning, I have a nice tired set of gardener's hamstrings

Ok! I am BACK, after a couple of weeks of eating CRAP! My stomach has been aching, my head has been killing me ... I'm not sure why I do it, but enough is enough!

Not going to measure or weigh right now - lots going on in my head - but my goal is to get into a pair of jeans by the end of this month. Right now, I can pull them on all the way but cannot button them up.

I went to a kettlebell class this morning, and going hiking this afternoon. No food really in my fridge right now, so I ate some crackers and cereal - but I will go shopping this evening, and have a perfectly Primal dinner

This is great. I've been stumbling around this site looking for this! I've been blathering on in the "avoid grains" thread in the support forum. Today is MAYDAY for me. I am starting a paleo diet today.

My current weight is 368 pounds. My goal is 198. I'm 48 years old, 6'2", and at my all time heaviest. I'm stil a junior member here, but I am really motivated and have been studying up on primal/paleo/low carb for a few months. I am going to follow the "get started" instructions at a blog called PaNu, so I am not following any "for sale" diet plan. Just trusting Dr. Harris has the right ideas for me.

Nice to find a support group. I'm going to go work on my gardener's hamstrings now.

I can't wait for tomorrow, lots of activity planned! I am picking up a sledge hammer tomorrow, really liked the exercises with it I saw on the MDA forum, my husband will like them too and they'll be good for days we can't get to the gym...looks like it will work tons of muscles that get overlooked in standard weight lifting.

Well, we'll call that the haagen-dazs experiment and declare it a waste of a loverly afternoon.
Despite a huge crash at about 4 (and it wasn't a nice primal tired) I did get lots of stuff done. My exercise was pushing a wheelbarrel full of bags of dirt.
I managed to fix my macros by eating bacon and eggs for supper.

I'm stuffed so I'm done eating for the day. I did an unintentional intermittent fast skipping breakfast because the kid got pancakes and I passed. Then I got busy with work and skipped lunch. That led to deciding to take a long walk before eating, which got me almost to dinner. I had some almonds and celery as an appetizer, pulled a lovely round roast out of the crock pot and steamed a whole head of cabbage. I ate plenty -- filling up on the cabbage. I calculate my total calories for the day at about 1000 - 1100, total carbs under 50 grams, and I am sated. Feeling fine.

I don't have a scale that can handle my weight and I DON'T want one, so I am weighing in at the doctor's office on the first of each month. I prefer not obsessing over it every day or even every week anyway.

I like your menu koceank. But WTH is avocado pudding?

Stick with us Cheeky. You can do this. Bread is the poison of civilization, the agent of modern disease. I'm stuffed on wonderful food -- grain free -- heading into fat burning ketosis -- healing my metabolic syndrome -- gettin' happy!

I ordered Primal Blueprint from the library and was just informed that it was "too popular" to loan out through Interlibrary loan. Our library staff, on hearing of the book has promised to put it on the purchase list. I'm sure I'll have bought and read it by then, but it was nice that they were so interested in the book.

I did something else "primal" today (sort of). Hubby and I went geocaching with a friend (wandering around the woods, hunting for hidden hidden trinkets).

I am so sore, I can hardly move. I wasn't moving fast (and I was using my cane for balance and support), but I was able to make it to two of the three caches (about 2 to 2.5 miles, in total, I think).

I am going to be very, very sore tomorrow. I had a minor allergic reaction to something in the woods (had to pop a benedryl and use my steroid cream on my face. My entire face turned bright, the skin swelled a bit and I felt like my face was on fire). Oh, and I had my first full body "tick check" (I'm a real Wisconsinite, now!)

BibBob ... I've been a card carryin' member of calorie counters/fitday for so long that I've found myself pretty much unable to eat without tracking. So, most of the time I track my foods and percentages of fats, carbs and protein in fitday.com.
After the ice cream, my carbs were waaaay too high in comparison to my fats and protein ... so I ate bacon and eggs.

And since I'm up early and have lots of time ... I'll explain that a little more.
When I first started primal blueprint I lost several pounds fast. Out of habit and curiosity I tracked my foods and was amazed to find that someone my size could lose weight on 1600, 1700 or 1800 cals. And when my losses slowed, I was happy to have that reference to see what I could tweak. It's also been handy to have when friends ask about that sort of thing.

Hi Colleen! So nice to have you here!
As time goes by, I find myself returning to Sisson's website when I have question about primal. It's really comprehesive. I've jealously guarded my book for a couple of months but ... I caught a coworker researching fertility meds on Friday. I offered to give her some weblinks. She then followed me to a private corner to learn more. 35 y o already had a bowel surgery, her DH has a terrible family cardiac history (and a history of his own already)... I will lend my book to them

Cheeky ... you stick with us hon, we'll help you. Would you mind telling us your height and weight?

Cheeky definitely stick with it and do the besst you can right now, I'm a huge believer in this lifestyle for not only physical health but mental!

Bibbob- You did great! Have you been eating like this a while or just dabbling? You'll definitely notice a visible difference IMO without the scale, this lifestyle has helped me burn so much fat,especcially from my belly. Its great!
I saw on Marks site an avocado pudding recipe and gave it whirl, actually good! 1 avocado,1/4c coconut milk(or almond),.5 tsp vanilla,1 tsp fresh lemon juice and a smidge of your choice of sweetener(I used stevia) - Blend it all up with a mixer /food processor and enjoy!

Colleen: tick checks...aren't they a joy! Geocaching sounds fun, definitely primal, its like you were on the hunt!LOL!

Susan- Haagan-Daaz experiment didn't go so well? I am going on a few vacations this summer and have been talking with my hubby about whether I'll treat myself to any old treats(funnel cake on the boardwalk kind of stuff) but I'm not sure its even worth it...I can't help but think I'll end up paying for it and be so miserable afterwards that there is no point in even eating it. I don't feel deprived one bit eating the way I have been, so I think, why mess up a good thing!

Susan - Due to some psychological issues I'm dealing with, I'm no longer weighing myself. I suspect I'm somewhere between 225-230 pounds, and I'm 5'7" - 5'8". I have a lot of trouble with numbers on the scale, so I'm tossing it!

Up, having my coffee, thinking I should scramble some eggs for breakfast and wondering what to do today. It's definitely time to grocery shop, so maybe I'll do that, come back here and clean my room (oh dear, does it ever need to be done!), and then I've got some plans this afternoon to tutor a student ... so that's going to be my day, I think! I'm pretty sore from the kettlebells yesterday, and I also went on a short hike with a friend (about an hour) - so probably no formal exercise today. However, a nice long walk at some point would be good ...

Thanks Susan. It was the term "macros" I was unfamiliar with, but I gotta say fixing the ice cream with bacon and eggs is so counterintuitive that it just has to be right!

Thanks for the recipe koceank. And yesterday was my first day of this lifestyle.

Brief confession that may only make sense to me. I decided on New Year's NOT to fly into another destined to yo yo and fail crash diet like I have so many times. I like fasting for quick weight loss, but long term it has not proven wise.

I write for a living, and I've found when researching a hot topic, like emerging accounting issues for derivatives and defense contractors (hehe), the fresh information itself is motivational for me. The better the new information the more motivated I am to get the story right. So, I developed this personal theory that if I was going to get healthy maybe I could apply this quirk of my personality to get myself right, rather than a topic. Weight loss inspiration has always come easy then waned. So my idea was Inspiration + Information = Lasting Motivation. Make sense? That led me to research everything diet related with a deep passion I never had before -- it became information, a research project, not just a pain in my fat butt. I did not diet during this process. I looked at 100+ programs/systems/diets over those 4 months. I read between 4-10 hours a day on the topic. I've mentioned in a few posts that I was prepared, even expecting, to emerge from this a vegetarian, possibly raw vegan from the data I started with. I set a date of May 1st to be informed and inspired and get this right for the last time. Man, I hope it works. Here's the real confession. For the last 10 days or so, I knew the paleo lifestyle had won me over after all that reading. So, during the final 10 days, I said goodbye to all the foods I was about to eliminate by indulging in them. I am sure I put on 15 pounds in those ten days. Ugh. Stupid, but it is what it is.

Susan -- Grocery shopping was shocking! 9/10ths of the store is poison!

SusanB - thanks for the website info, it will help until I finish the book (I'm buying it this weekend, I think. If B&N has a copy, otherwise I'll check amazon and have to wait a few days to get it). I've read The Paleo Diet, NeanderThin, The Paleolithic Prescription (that one was a long time ago, though) and also Refuse to Regain (in which the author refers to "Primarian eating") which all share a lot of the same premises regarding the most appropriate foods.

koceank29 Yeah I'm a scary hunter-gatherer, hobbling in the woods with my cane. It was SO fun (and I am so sore, but feel victorious that I can move - sometimes after unexpected levels of exhertion my muscles cramp up so badly I can barely stand up - I'm not so sure how straight I'm standing, but I can walk so I'm doing good). Funny though, I didn't even think of it, but my hubby is a big-time foodie and was pointing out the forest flora that were edible (such as the fiddlehead ferns, "taste like asparagus" he told us).

BibBob - Inspiration + Information = Lasting Motivation. Oh Yeah. I have to keep feeding myself information though, or I get sloppy. I don't think I've ever had "Lasting Motivation" and I think it's because I need a constant diet of information to stoke the fires of motivation. After all, I read The Paleolithic prescription nearly 20 years ago (sounded inspiring, but I yielded to the common wisdom of the day - that it was a "fad diet," dangerous because it eliminated the "food group" of grains).